1742 trails = 308591 miles

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Located on the southern Adriatic coast, the small country of Montenegro offers beautiful and often unexplored hiking opportunities. Expect some rough terrain – most of the country is mountainous and inaccessible. Karst is the predominant rock type. On the one hand, this white and hard rock gives the landscape a bright and colourful touch, not "negro" at all. On the other hand, walking can be tiresome, crossing difficult terrain, climbing on and off plateau's, jumping over crevasses.

The Dinaric Alps are the main mountain range, shared with several neighbouring countries. Most wild and impressive are inland Durmitor National Park near Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Prokletije National Park bordering Albania and Kosovo. You will find rugged limestone peaks rising steeply up to over 2000m, numerous glacier lakes, high grassy meadows and forests of black beech and pine. Less rugged, more soft, is the in between National Park of Biogradska Gora, hosting virgin forest and the stunningly deep Tara river canyon.

The Transverzala Planinama Crne Gore CT1 is an inland long distance walk connecting above mentioned national parks: Durmitor in the north west with Kucka Krajina on the Albanian border. A fit person, carrying tent and food, can make this high altitude walk in about 8 days. The route is marked and there are 14 checkpoints to collect stamps. Expect snow in early summer.

The Dinaric Alps rise up right from the sea. There is barely cultivable land between the coastline and the inland mountains. In the west, bordering Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina, the mountains of Orjen can be found. A bit further down along the coast is the Lovcen National Park, providing the scenery for well known Lake Kotor. Less known but equally challenging are the mountain ranges continuing east.

Recently a second long distance trail has been created, the Primorska planinarska transverzala or Coastal hiking transversal, connecting Orjen and Lovcen down to Bar. To complete this 140 km long walk you will need about ten days. Again, carrying a tent, food, and plenty of water is necessary. The landscape of flowers, forests, white karst and its many rock phenomena, is very special.

Currently, the country is renewing the tourist infrastructure, including opportunities for hiking. There are marked trails in all mountain areas, and detailed maps exist but can be hard to come by. Contact the local hiking clubs; you can find them on the web page of the Mountaineering Association of Montenegro. There are a number of mountain huts in the most popular areas, though carrying a tent, camping gear, food and water (!) is necessary on multi-day hikes.

In the low areas along the coast, summers get very hot and winters are mild. Up in the mountains summer temperatures are of a sub-alpine type and may still be rather warm. Winters in the mountains bring lots of snow, up to 5m!

Lodging

Organisations

ZalaZ offers free advice to independent hikers. Zalaz also offers guiding and organises hiking tours. ZalaZ is a developing NGO project devoted to promoting the ideas of eco-tourism and sustainability in Montenegro. Take a look at their inspiring website!

Tour operators

GPS

Other

This guidebook to Montenegro includes 17 walks and trekking routes throughout the Dinaric Alps, in Montenegro's five national parks as well as Orjen, Komovi, Tara Canyon and the UNESCO-listed old town of Kotor. The circular and linear routes range from easy hour-long outings to challenging 5-day treks involving exposure and scrambling.Read more

The Mountains of Montenegro in a walking guide from Cicerone Press with itineraries ranging from short (2km) hikes to multi-day treks. The guide recommends circular and point-to-point routes, generally on waymarked footpaths, presenting them with detailed descriptions accompanied by somewhat basic but coloured and contoured maps. The selection...Read more

Bijzondere wandelgids van een bijzonder land in opkomst: goed beschreven, met veel informatie en details, dus zeer bruikbaar! This guidebook includes a range of day-walks and multi-day treks throughout the Dinaric Alps of Montenegro. These mountains are some of the wildest, most spectacular, and least visited in Europe. Nevertheless they are...Read more

Guidebook to the Peaks of the Balkans Trail, a 192km trek through Montenegro, Albania and Kosovo. The route, which can comfortably be completed in less than a fortnight, is waymarked and covers terrain between 670m and 2300m in altitude, taking in remote valleys, dramatic mountain passes, stunning scenery and villages untouched by time.Read more

Montenegro Wilderness Biking Atlas compiled by Map Solutions and the country’s National Tourism Organization, with detailed topographic mapping at 1:100,000 overprinted with 17 cycling routes from eight centres. The trails vary in length from 41km to 178km and can be combined into longer routes or circuits.The atlas, published in a handy A5...Read more

The coast of Montenegro at 1:100,000 on a detailed, contoured and GPS compatible road map from Kartografija in Ljubljana, with on the reverse bilingual descriptions of numerous places of interest illustrated with colour photographs.The map has contours at 40m intervals plus altitude colouring and relief shading, with spot heights for local...Read more

The coast of Croatia on detailed tourist maps from Freytag & Berndt prominently highlighting campsites and other facilities, as well as numerous places of interest. The whole coast with the islands, from Trieste in Italy to Herceg-Novi in Montenegro, is covered on six maps at 1:100,000. A separate map at 1:150,000 covers the Dalmatian coast...Read more

This is a colourful and resistant placemat by Little Wigwam, featuring a political map of Europe with capitals and major cities. All the information is up-to-date and includes Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro. The seas are named, lines of longitude and latitude are shown at 15 degree intervals, the Arctic Circle is marked and the mat features a...Read more